Probe Targets Global Match-Fixing in Soccer

A European law-enforcement agency Monday said it suspects over 680 soccer matches played around the world have been fixed by criminal networks. Dow Jones's Simon Zekaria reports. Photo: Getty.

By

Joshua Robinson

Updated Feb. 4, 2013 1:59 p.m. ET

International crime rings have fixed hundreds of soccer matches around the world, Europe's law-enforcement agency said Monday, in the latest blow to the reputation of the sport.

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Juventus's Robert Kovac, left, in a 2006 match against Lecce in Italy's second division.
Associated Press

Unlike previous match-fixing probes by officials around the world that have targeted individual teams or leagues, this one depicts a complex global organization with the power to reach across continents and influence match results from the lower leagues of smaller countries to the world's most prestigious international competitions.

Europol, an organization coordinating the work of police forces across Europe, said it suspected 680 soccer matches played around the world have been fixed by criminal networks, many organized through a Singapore-based organization.

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Some of Europol's findings released Monday are already being pursued by national law enforcement in the respective countries. In Germany, 14 people have been convicted of match-fixing activities, following an investigation by German law enforcement, Europol said. A spokesman added that arrest warrants related to this case had also been issued in Asia.

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South Korean fans at Ulsan Munsu Stadium in 2012.
Zuma Press

"Illegal profits are being made on a scale and in a way that threatens the very fabric of the game." Europol director Rob Wainwright said, speaking from The Hague.

The investigation hasn't yet named any players, clubs or national associations, but it said that 425 people were involved across 15 countries. "This is match-fixing activity on a scale we have not seen before," Mr. Wainwright said. Europol said the probe included qualifiers for the sport's two biggest international tournaments—the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship, as well as Europe's top club competition the UEFA Champions League and top-flight domestic match-ups.

Earlier

Mr. Wainwright said that one of the Champions League matches had been played in England, which is one of the world's biggest soccer markets.

The Premier League, the governing body of England's top soccer division, and the Professional Footballers' Association, the trade union for all professional players in England and Wales, weren't available to comment.

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(L-R) Ari Karvonen, head of the organized crime investigation Finland; Mitja Jager, senior investigator of Slovenia and Bajan Nemeth, investigator of Hungary during a press conference on match-fixing in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Monday.
European Pressphoto Agency

Suspicious activity is connected to 300 matches in Africa, Asia, South and Central America, Europol said.

The match-fixing activity in Europe, where links were also found to Russian-speaking and other criminal syndicates, has already led to several prosecutions, Europol said. The law-enforcement agency said the illegal activities have allegedly generated over $10.9 million in betting profits and at least $2.7 million in corrupt payments,

"Betting primarily on the Asian market, [the] ringleaders are of Asian origin, working closely together with European facilitators," Europol said.

Blemishes on the Beautiful Game

2005 Robert Hoyzer, a German referee, admits to fixing and betting on games in the country's second-tier league. For the nine matches prosecutors said he fixed or attempted to fix, Hoyzer received payment of about $90,000 and a television set.

2006 Match fixing in Italy's top league leads to Turin club Juventus being stripped of two league titles and its relegation to the second division.

2011 Eleven players in the Finnish professional league were arrested for assisting to fix match results. Finnish authorities say that a crime organization based in Singapore was involved in the match-fixing activities.

2012 Juventus manager Antonio Conte is banned for four months by FIFA for failing to report match fixing while he was coach of second-division team Siena in 2011.

2012 Kirsten Nematandani, president of South Africa's Football Association, and four other South African soccer officials, were suspended after a FIFA report alleged that four international exhibition matches ahead of the 2010 World Cup were fixed.

2013 FIFA slaps lifetime bans on 41 players in South Korea's professional K-League following an investigation in 2011 into match-fixing activities. South Korean prosecutors charged 46 current and former players along with 11 members of a gambling ring.

Switzerland-based UEFA, the administrative body for soccer in Europe, said it was cooperating with authorities and would review the results of the probe when it received further details, expected in the "coming days."

IFA, the global administrator for the sport, was unavailable for comment. FIFA, the sport's global ruling body, said in January that soccer faced real threats in the form of corruption and match-fixing. and that it is important that it be involved in the fight against organized crime.

Michael Garcia, the chairman of the investigative arm of FIFA's ethics committee, said this issue would fall under his purview, although this case hasn't been formally directed to his office. Mr. Garcia said that FIFA could start ethics proceedings against national associations and officials involved in the alleged ring, but would have to wait until criminal charges are filed to obtain the names of the people under scrutiny.

Mr. Garcia, a former vice president at Interpol, had no specific details of the Europol investigation or any ties to alleged Singaporean and Russian-speaking criminal groups, but has seen other match-fixing complaints since taking on his current role in July.

"The general information coming out of Europol is consistent with the type of information of what I'm seeing," he said.

—--Simon Zekaria in London, Chun Han Wong in Singapore and Matthew Dalton in Brussels contributed to this article.

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